Sony celebrated the launch of its XBR8 tricolor-LED-backlit LCD TV lineup with a Pioneer-style…
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Here's what great: The black levels are near-Kuro deep. In dimly-lit scenes, blacks had "an inky depth in dark areas that lent superb punch and realism to the image, and easily outclassed the rest of the non-Pioneer sets." The only taint is that when bright areas are next to dark ones, it lightens up the bars a bit, so Pioneer wins here. The color accuracy "is nothing short of superb" and after calibration they're as "excellently balanced and still as saturated as on the Pioneer." Its de-juddering mode is also the best they've ever seen.

Its few weak points: Image quality fades when you look at it from an off angle, the previously mentioned blooming with high contrast images, and the dejuddering can produce some artifacts, especially with a standard-def picture. Oh, and it's $7000, the most expensive TV they've ever tested. On the upside, if you're willing to spend more than $6500 on a TV, you apparently can't go wrong. [Cnet via Sony Insider]